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William Berry was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, probably in 1834 or 1835, the son of Margaret Garden and her husband, William Berry, a dyer. Around the age of 12 he was apprenticed in the composing room of the Scotsman…

Wharetutu's date of birth is unknown. She was born probably early in the nineteenth century, for the first of her children was born in 1827. She was the youngest of the eight children of Tāhuna and Tahupare, both of…

According to family information Christopher William Richmond was born in London, England, on 12 July 1821, the son of a barrister, Christopher Richmond, and his wife, Maria (Lely) Wilson. The major influence on his…

Bruce Biggs had a distinguished career as a scholar but he was also that rarer thing, an exceptional builder of academic institutions. In academic Māori studies he was the most influential figure of the twentieth…

George Stoddart Whitmore was born on 30 May 1829 in Malta, the son of George St Vincent Whitmore and his wife, Isabella Maxwell Stoddart. His father was a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers stationed at Malta; his mother…

Ramai Hayward was a pioneering documentary and feature film-maker. She trained as a photographer in the mid-1930s and had established her own studio in Auckland when she starred in Rudall Hayward’s landmark film…

Donald McLean was a Scottish Highlander, born on 25 October 1820, the third son of Margaret McColl and her husband, John McLean, at Kilmaluag on Tiree, one of the Inner Hebrides. John McLean was a tacksman, holding a…

Samuel Horouta Emery was born, probably in 1885, at the foot of Kakepuku in a small Māori settlement near Te Awamutu. His father was Samuel Hoera Joyce, a bushman, of Ngāti Mahuta; he also had kinship ties with Ngāti…

Golan Haberfield Maaka, also known as Te Kōrana, was born on 4 April 1904 on Ōruawharo station, Takapau, Hawke's Bay. His father was Aritaku Maaka, of Ngāti Hikatoa of Waimārama and Ngāi Tahu of Takapau, hapū of Ngāti…

James West Stack, born on 27 March 1835 in a tent in a Māori pā at Pūriri in the Thames district, New Zealand, was the oldest of seven children of the missionary James Stack and his wife, Mary West. He married Eliza…

Hirawanu Tapu (known also as Maitarawai and Taputehara Maitara) was born about 1824 at Te Awapātiki on the east coast of Chatham Island. He was a member of the Ōwenga Moriori tribe. His mother's name was either Rūnanga…

Ngāwaka Taurua was a member of Pakakohe, a hapū of Ngāti Ruanui who lived at Hukatere, south of the Pātea River in South Taranaki. The names of his parents are not recorded. He also had connections with another Ngāti…

Janet Munro was born on 31 January 1883 in Glasgow, Scotland, to Mary McLean, a housekeeper, and William Munro, an iron foundry warehouseman. Her parents married four years later. Janet sometimes used her maternal…

Peter Seton Hay was born in Glasgow, Scotland, probably in 1852 or 1853, the son of Janet (Jessie) Dalziel and her husband, James Johnston Hay, a journeyman engineer. When Peter was a child the family emigrated to New…

Kiti Karaka, known also as Catherine, Kate or Kitty Clark, was born on Ruapuke Island in Foveaux Strait on 12 September 1870. Her father, Arapetere Karaka (Albert Clark), nicknamed 'Chatham Islands Willy', was born in…

Mary Jane Lewis was born at Llanvaches, Monmouthshire, Wales, on 18 April 1852, the second daughter and third child of Hannah Morgan and her husband, Thomas Lewis. Hannah and Thomas, who owned a farm, both died before…

According to family tradition, Tame Horomona Rehe, subsequently and better known as Tommy Solomon, was born at Waikaripi on Chatham Island on 7 May 1884. He was the only surviving child of Rangitapua Horomona Rehe and…

Mary Ann Sinclair was born in a raupo hut at Pirinoa, southern Wairarapa, New Zealand, on 29 January 1864. She was the youngest of seven children of Scottish settlers Katherine McCallum and her husband, Donald Sinclair…

Ranginui Walker was a highly influential writer, public commentator, community leader and activist who played a significant role in the cultural and political renaissance of Māori in the 1970s and 1980s. He contributed…

Charles Frederick Goldie was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 October 1870. The second of eight children born to David Goldie and his wife, Maria Partington, he was second-generation colonial on both sides. His…